Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Iraq snapshot

Wednesday, August 10, 2016. Chaos and violence continues, newborns dead in Baghdad, Sunnis continue to be persecuted, Mika and MSNBC obsess over a dumb joke Donald Trump told, Jill Stein gears up for NPR, and much more.

Of course, the difference there was that Hillary was dead serious. She wasn't joking.

As Anne E. Kornblut (WASHINGTON POST) explained back then, "Her advisers quickly explained that Clinton merely intended to note that
this was not the first primary campaign to stretch into the summer, not
to suggest that Obama might be assassinated. Clinton later apologized
to the Kennedy family while speaking to reporters, saying she did not
mean to offend anyone."

Again, the difference was that Donald Trump was joking.

As Mika and the other fools on MSNBC grab the vapors every five seconds, they look more and more like caged fools and less and less like even TV hosts -- let alone the journalists they pretend to be.

(And they're not journalists. They host talk shows. Andrea Mitchell's MSNBC appearances only argue for why she should no longer be able to report news. She reveals she's not impartial daily on MSNBC.)

Mika really needs to seek professional help about her inability to get through a morning without exploding over the tiniest and most unimportant details of the day.

She seems to have an addiction to on air rage and it's very unprofessional.

Even more so when you remember the construct of the show is Mika as den mother reigning in the rowdy 'boys.'

But it lets her vent over her failed life -- MSNBC was the highest she could make it?

And only as a third or fourth banana?

After all her father did to promote war and conflict -- basically birthing the modern Afghanistan War all by himself -- and the best GE could do for her was this?

She is blond and she is pret -- Well, she's blond.

But now she's 49.

And the thought of her ever progressing anywhere is as hilarious as when her father went running through the Carter White House in a panic convinced that Fidel Castro had sent a box of exploding cigars.

AP reports 11 newborn are dead in Baghdad. (Arabic outlets are saying 12.) The children, all premature infants at Yarmouk Maternity Hospital, are dead after what the Ministry of Health says was an electrical fire. AP notes, "A lack of fire escapes also contributes to the danger whenever a fire
breaks out. There is also widespread failure by construction companies
and those providing building material to follow accepted standards." And AP's latest update brings the number killed to 12 as well.

Mika has no outrage to express over that.

Or over the freeing of the leaders of the League of Righteous.

FOX NEWS notes:The powerful commander of an Iran-backed Shiite militia in Iraq --
whom the U.S. freed after the kidnapping deaths of four American
soldiers in 2007 -- has hinted that his fighters could blend in with
Iraqi forces to kill Americans on the battlefield in Mosul.Qais al-Khazali, leader of the paramilitary group
Asaib Ahl al-Haq, "brags that he can wear any uniform in the Iraqi
military, meaning that right now, his men are part of the Iraqi security
forces that our men and women are training and advising. All he has to
do is give the order," former military intelligence officer Michael
Pregent told Fox News' Heather Nauert on "America's Election HQ" Monday.
"He will return to violence, and he has American blood on his hands."

The militia commander told Reuters
last month, "The Americans do not trust us because we resisted them
during the occupation. There is no prospect (for cooperation)."

This morning the New York Times' Alissa J. Rubin and Michael Gordon offered "U.S. Frees Suspect in Killing of 5 G.I.'s." Martin Chulov (Guardian) covered the same story, Kim Gamel (AP) reported on it, BBC offered "Kidnap hope after Shia's handover" and Deborah Haynes contributed "Hope for British hostages in Iraq after release of Shia militant" (Times
of London). The basics of the story are this. 5 British citizens have
been hostages since May 29, 2007. The US military had in their custody
Laith al-Khazali. He is a member of Asa'ib al-Haq. He is also accused
of murdering five US troops. The US military released him and allegedly
did so because his organization was not going to release any of the
five British hostages until he was released. This is a big story and
the US military is attempting to state this is just diplomacy, has
nothing to do with the British hostages and, besides, they just released
him to Iraq. Sami al-askari told the New York Times, "This is a very
sensitive topic because you know the position that the Iraqi
government, the U.S. and British governments, and all the governments
do not accept the idea of exchanging hostages for prisoners. So we put
it in another format, and we told them that if they want to participate
in the political process they cannot do so while they are holding
hostages. And we mentioned to the American side that they cannot join
the political process and release their hostages while their leaders are
behind bars or imprisoned." In other words, a prisoner was traded for
hostages and they attempted to not only make the trade but to lie to
people about it. At the US State Dept, the tired and bored reporters
were unable to even broach the subject. Poor declawed tabbies. Pentagon
reporters did press the issue and got the standard line from the
department's spokesperson, Bryan Whitman, that the US handed the
prisoner to Iraq, the US didn't hand him over to any organization --
terrorist or otherwise. What Iraq did, Whitman wanted the press to know,
was what Iraq did. A complete lie that really insults the intelligence
of the American people. CNN reminds the five US soldiers killed "were:
Capt. Brian S. Freeman, 31, of Temecula, California; 1st Lt. Jacob N.
Fritz, 25, of Verdon, Nebraska; Spc. Johnathan B. Chism, 22, of
Gonzales, Louisiana; Pfc. Shawn P. Falter, 25, of Cortland, New York;
and Pfc. Johnathon M. Millican, 20, of Trafford, Alabama." Those are
the five from January 2007 that al-Khazali and his brother Qais
al-Khazali are supposed to be responsible for the deaths of. Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert H. Reid (AP) states
that Jonathan B. Chism's father Danny Chism is outraged over the
release and has declared, "They freed them? The American military did?
Somebody needs to answer for it."

No one ever has had to answer for it.

Barack made the trade for the corpses of four British citizens (Alan McMenemy, Jason Swindlehurst, Alec MacLachlan and Jason Cresswell) and one living British subject (Peter Moore).

And it was a trade, check the archives.

The League talked about it to the press repeatedly.

And refused to release McMenemy for nearly two years claiming Barack hadn't kept all his promises to them.

He released the killers of American soldiers and he made deals with them.

Now they're telling Reuters they have no problem killing US service members sent to Iraq.

And the government of Haider al-Abadi -- whom Barack installed and supports -- has incorporated the League into the government forces.

And because 9 billion US taxpayer dollars wasted on a failed 'plot' (let's stop calling it a "strategy"), the US Defense Dept announced yesterday:

Strikes in IraqAttack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket
artillery conducted eight strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in
support of Iraq’s government:-- Near Baghdadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.-- Near Hit, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.-- Near Kisik, two strikes destroyed 30 ISIL rocket rails and 10 ISIL rockets and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.-- Near Mosul, two strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit
and destroyed three ISIL vehicles, an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL
assembly area and denied ISIL access to terrain.-- Near Qayyarah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical
unit and destroyed eight ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL weapons cache and
an ISIL vehicle.Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic
events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a
single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a
single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle
is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons
against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for
example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or
impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not
report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number
of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual
munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in
counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a
strike.

These daily strikes have been going on since August of 2014.

Two years.

They accomplish nothing.

They destroy Iraq further.

They kill civilians.

They do nothing to address the Iraqi government's persecution of the Sunni population.

June 19, 2014, Barack Obama insisted a political solution was needed.

Two years later, no political solution and no work towards a political solution.

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.